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What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

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Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#71

Post by gaius »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #23

> "Here are a few actionable things companies can do to remain profitable without tracking the maximum amount of information possible on consumers:" Can we add to his list: > Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can. > Along with a paid option, companies should develop partnerships with like minded peers. For example, DDG could pair with various VPN providers and the…

Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can

The problem is that the customers with disposable income to pay to see no ads are exactly the people that admen want to reach. So it's unlikely that any ad-supported company will offer this. It would be as good as admitting to their real customers that their inventory (i.e. us) was of "low quality".

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#72

Post by yeutterg »

utopcell wrote: post #43
avip wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quora is a good place for product placement and is commonly used as such. In fact, I believe that’s Quora’s revenue generation model...

Hang on, do you think Quora is being paid to allow such answers, or that they allow them because controversial answers are popular ?

Whether or not companies are paying Quora, it's common for startup founders to answer questions there.

Sometimes the posts are blatant ads that don't really answer the question, or they add nothing that was not already answered. But sometimes they do answer the question and provide value, while also subtly pointing to a product. I think the latter is acceptable, and I do it occasionally myself. (Example: https://www.quora.com/What-kinds-of-lights-are-best-to-comba...)

Consider this: founders have the strongest conviction for solving a given problem. They often created a product because they saw a gap in the market, and they tend to be domain experts. So, they are highly qualified to answer questions within their area of expertise.

If a post provides value and just so happens to offer a relevant solution with financial strings attached, I have absolutely no problem with it. I might even end up purchasing it, because by searching or asking questions on Quora, I am looking for a solution myself.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#73

Post by SharkBl4de »

tokyodude wrote: post #39
catacombs wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not nonsense. Google isn't a search company. It's an advertising company.

I don't think that's really fair. By that argument, every magazine, radio, and TV show are ad companies. That includes NPR which runs ads for sponsors and ads for pledges. NYTimes, The Guardian, etc... Do all those companies make money from ads? Sure. Does that make them ad companies? No, they are first and foremost companies that provide a service for the user. If that service is good enough (gets enough viewers) th…

The argument is completely fair and correct. Every media company supported by ads is an ad company. They market the readers, listeners, or watchers to advertisers.

The only thing the content needs to do is attract enough people to convince someone it's worth the money to put a message in front of the gathered audience. The content doesn't have to be the "best" it just has to be the attractive enough to draw an audience. A train wreck we'll draw an audience without being good at all.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#74

Post by chiefalchemist »

gaius wrote: post #71
chiefalchemist wrote: post #23

> "Here are a few actionable things companies can do to remain profitable without tracking the maximum amount of information possible on consumers:" Can we add to his list: > Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can. > Along with a paid option, companies should develop partnerships with like minded peers. For example, DDG could pair with various VPN providers and the…

Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can The problem is that the customers with disposable income to pay to see no ads are exactly the people that admen want to reach. So it's unlikely that any ad-supported company will offer this. It would be as good as admitting to their real customers that their inventory (i.e. us) was of "low quality".

If YouTube can offer a no ads model then it can't be impossible. Mind you, Google is likely doing other trickery. But certainly there's got to be alternatives to ad blockers, etc.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#75

Post by barbecue_sauce »

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #52
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rant seems extremely strong - how about we go with well thought through set of opinions that the CEO of Duck Duck Go is rigorously applying to his product. I personally found his argument so persuasive I intend to set everything to DuckDuckGo again now.

I can’t get over ther branding. I know this is a terrible reason for not switching but I can’t stand their name or logo. If they were named something more modern and less annoying I’d consider. Call me shallow but branding is important if I’m going to use it every day.

How about something more like CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet?

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#76

Post by JCSato »

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #52
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rant seems extremely strong - how about we go with well thought through set of opinions that the CEO of Duck Duck Go is rigorously applying to his product. I personally found his argument so persuasive I intend to set everything to DuckDuckGo again now.

I can’t get over ther branding. I know this is a terrible reason for not switching but I can’t stand their name or logo. If they were named something more modern and less annoying I’d consider. Call me shallow but branding is important if I’m going to use it every day.

To be fair, "Google" is pretty silly sounding too, in a vacuum. . .But yes, DDG isn't a great name, and it put me off using it in college.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#77

Post by fileeditview »

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #52
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rant seems extremely strong - how about we go with well thought through set of opinions that the CEO of Duck Duck Go is rigorously applying to his product. I personally found his argument so persuasive I intend to set everything to DuckDuckGo again now.

I can’t get over ther branding. I know this is a terrible reason for not switching but I can’t stand their name or logo. If they were named something more modern and less annoying I’d consider. Call me shallow but branding is important if I’m going to use it every day.

While I use DDG as my default search engine I also never got the name.. I think the logo is fine but the name is beyond me.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#78

Post by Marsymars »

dpcan wrote: post #9
stephengillie wrote: post #2

> In fact, search advertisers buy search ads by bidding on keywords, not people. It makes intuitive sense, too. If you search for ‘car’, you are more likely to respond to a car ad than something you searched for last week. This keyword-based advertising is our primary business model. The rest of the post is a rant about user tracking.

I think there's a problem with this model however. When the highest bidder wins, consumers and advertisers can lose, big. I understand how DDG has to say this is the best and smartest way to do things because they have to live with their promise of not creeping on their visitors - so they can't use the same analytics that someone like Google has. It's just marketing. But the ads that go to the top should be the most…

> But the ads that go to the top should be the most valuable, not necessarily go to the buyer with the deepest pockets.

That's the point of a search engine. If you show those as ads, you'd just be duplicating the top search results every time.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#79

Post by nickpsecurity »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #23

> "Here are a few actionable things companies can do to remain profitable without tracking the maximum amount of information possible on consumers:" Can we add to his list: > Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can. > Along with a paid option, companies should develop partnerships with like minded peers. For example, DDG could pair with various VPN providers and the…

"Offer a paid option such that consumers who want to pay for privacy / less ads / no ads can."

I've pushed for this for a long time. Google and Facebook could do this. An annual fee tied to whatever minimum amount they make per user in ads makes all their services private for that user. They can even run the same stacks on different machines stored in different DB's for further isolation. Won't cost them much of anything extra given their existing datacenters and management software. Drop in the bucket. Might also have benefit of a sure thing vs advertisers whims.

That would take us back to a clear choice for consumers of being the customer or the product. We could vote with our wallet. I'm sure most would vote to be the product but the number of paying customers (esp businesses) should be significant.

Re: What is the revenue generation model for DuckDuckGo?

#80

Post by JCSato »

blackhaz wrote: post #70

I'll probably be downvoted to hell, but I have to say this. I'm Ukrainian, so I have bias against anything related to Russian government, especially services pretending to be improving my privacy. So, my question is, what is DuckDuckGo's relationship to Yandex, a company fully controlled by Russian government and having track record sharing personal information with Russian security services?

Are. . .you aware of some relationship between the two? I don't think I've ever heard of them being linked.
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